Sacrilege/Trigger warning:

As a product leader, when developing the product strategy and roadmap: I am more interested in what Design and Product Marketing says than what Engineering and Sales have to say.

Why? Because...

Sales: I can't over-index on what 1 customer thinks they need. Specific customers can be important inputs, but they don't know how to build generalized product. They only understand their particular pain. If they had their way we would build features to solve everything going on in their organization. It's our job - as a product lead company designed to scale - to determine, implement, and encourage best practices that work across companies and industries.

Engineering: I can't over-index on how it works or what the technical limitations. Engineers are amazing partners and collaborators but their focus is on implementation details and development effort. It's our job - as a product lead company designed to scale - to look past what we think is possible and focus on what customers really need. In my experience - once challenged - engineers are wizards who can ultimately build anything that's asked of them.

In other words:

1. Don't ask customers (plural) what they want. Ask them what pain they feel.

2. Have an opinion about what you're building and what you are NOT building. This includes the best practices or ideal flows for solving problems in a first-principles, digital-first way.

3. Design something great.

4. Challenge your engineers to build it in small, digestible iterations.

In yet other words: LEAD!